September 5, 2014 - The Little Clam

There once was a timid little clam who lived in a very large and imposing ocean.  He had a large and imposing family as well, which made him all the more timid.  Many of them were very large and strong, while he himself was very small and rather plain-looking.  His mother always told him to filter more water so he could eat and grow stronger and more beautiful, but there was only so much he could eat.  It soon became apparent that he was not going to grow any larger, and his mother didn’t help any by always telling him, “You never do anything right.”

The little claim began spending more and more time alone, filtering here and there when the mood struck.  He was a lazy filterer, and he’d often come home dirty because he hadn’t filtered properly.  “You never do anything right,” his mother would say.  And because he believed it, it was true.  He never did anything right.

One day he was out filtering in a lonely area of the ocean and he ran across a pretty little oyster.  He was so lonely, he decided to talk to her, even though clams are not known for talking much to oysters, and vice versa.

The little clam with the big secret.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Filtering,” she said, “What else?”

“Me too.”

“Well, you’re not doing a good job of it,” she said.  “You’re a mess.”

“That’s because I never do anything right.”

“That’s pretty harsh,” she said, and she couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. 

So she sidled up to him, and they began filtering together and became friends.  He told her about his problems with his family and how plain-looking he was for a clam.

“I don’t know.  You’re alright--for a clam,” she said.

“You think so??” he asked.

“Oh sure.”

“You’re not bad either--for an oyster,” he ventured shyly.

“I am rather pretty,” she said matter-of-factly.  “Now I have an idea.  I am going to teach you how to make a beautiful pearl.  Then everyone will think you’re beautiful, and your mother can go and pound sand.”
“Clams don’t usually make beautiful pearls,” he said, “And I never do anything right.”
“Oh, this is right up your alley,” she said.  “In fact, you’re perfect for it because it involves some lousy filtering.”
“Well, I am good at that,” he said.

So the little oyster showed the little clam how to embed a tiny piece of sand between his mantle and shell.  It was pretty easy to do since the clam was a messy eater to begin with.

“This kind of bothers me, though,” he said.
“Good.  It’s supposed to.  Now all you have to do is just keep covering it with your nacre--and believe me, you’ll want to do it over and over because it’s the only way to stop the irritation,” she said.

So that’s what the little clam did.  He covered the grain of sand over and over with his iridescent nacre.  It took quite a few months, but finally he started to feel completely comfortable again.  On one particularly lazy day, he told the oyster all about it.

“Ah!  Then you’re ready!” she said.

“Ready for what?”

“Follow me,” she said, “We’re going to your family’s feeding ground.”

So off they went and when they arrived, the little clam’s family was taken aback by the fact that he was fraternizing with an oyster.  But before they could say anything rude, which they fully intended to do, huge hands reached into the water and began grabbing many of the clams and pulling them up to whatever place is beyond the water.  And they all knew they did not want to go to that place!

The little clam was horrified by what he was witnessing.  He screamed as loudly as he could at the hands, and suddenly, the pearl popped right out of him and into one of the hands.  All movement stopped then.  The hand swished the pearl around gently in the water, and it was such a beauty!  It was large and shimmered many fine colors.  All the other clams gasped at its beauty, and the little oyster just smiled a secret smile and giggled to herself.  Slowly, the hands brought the beautiful pearl up out of the water.

This gave all the clams enough time to flow out with the current and escape.  As soon as they were safe, they all crowded around the little clam and asked him how he made such a beautiful pearl.  He lied and told them he had no idea, which made the little oyster laugh all the more as she hovered in the background, listening.  No matter how much they begged and pleaded, he would not tell them how to make a pearl.  Finally, they gave up asking.

“Just talented, I guess,” one of them said.

“A natural,” said another.

“Gifted,” said a third.

“He just has a knack for it,” said yet another.  And on and on they went.

It made the little clam very happy to hear all of this.  He was so proud and pleased with all the compliments, and because he believed it all--having seen the beautiful pearl he had created himself--it was true.  As soon as he and his oyster friend were alone again, he set to work on making another beautiful pearl and decided he would make two new pearls every year.  The little oyster thought this was a very good idea, and the last anyone knew of the little clam’s mother, she was off pounding sand somewhere.